Sandy and I have decided to take off August in regard to creating two new blogs for the month. We will switch our focus to finishing the second volume of the German occupation of Paris (Where Did They Put the Gestapo Headquarters?). We’re so close to wrapping up the new book that I am going to put blinders on and spend one hundred percent of my time trying to complete it.
In the meantime, we are “repurposing” two of our prior blogs for August. This blog was published in 2017 as The Sussex Plan and a Very Brave Woman (click here to read the original blog). Notice the change in title? I received an e-mail from a relative of Evelyn Clopet pointing out her contributions to the Sussex Plan, its mission, and her ultimate sacrifice. I promised Caroline that I would reprint the 2017 blog but on an expanded basis to include Evelyn. So, here it is.
Remember the “rabbit hole” I talked about in a past blog post? (click here to read the blog, Curious GeorgeFlees the Nazis) Well, I went down the rabbit hole for a week and popped back up with the relatively forgotten story of The Sussex Plan and its 120 brave agents. What initially grabbed my attention was the address in Paris of an established safe house used to shelter more than forty Sussex agents. The former cafe will be one of the stops in our third and final volume of Where Did They Put the Gestapo Headquarters? A Walking Tour of Nazi-Occupied Paris (1940−1944) Deportations & Liberation.
The stories, memories, and memorabilia of The Sussex Plan and its agents are kept alive by Dominique Soulier and the MM Park France Museum (twelve miles north of Strasbourg France). M. Soulier is the son of Georges Soulier, a former Sussex Plan agent. More on this later. Click here to visit the museum’s web-site. Read More The Sussex Plan and Three Very Brave Women
Our topic today is inspired by a trip we took to the Netherlands in May 2023. One of the excursions was to the Delta Works, a massive decades-long engineering project to protect the Dutch from devastating floods in the southern part of the Netherlands.
Little did I know when I signed up for the excursion that the museum we would tour was connected to the Normandy invasion on 6 June 1944 and the ensuing deployment of men, armaments, and supplies used to support the Allies as they broke out of Normandy on the path to Germany.
The museum, Watersnoodmuseum, or “Flood Museum” is located inside four concrete caissons built to be used as part of the two artificial Mulberry Harbors at Arromanches-les-Bains (or simply, Arromanches) and Saint-Laurent-sur-mer, France.
Commemorative plaque at the Watersnoodmuseum identifying the “Monument Watersnood 1953.” Photo by Rene1971 (2 September 2006). PD-CCA-Share Alike 3.0 Unported. Wikimedia Commons.
Did You Know?
Did you know that we recently ran across rats in the Tiergarten during our visit to Berlin? Yep, it was a similar experience from years ago while we were walking in a Parisian park next to the Seine. After I returned to the states, I found out there was an organized movement in Paris to befriend those friendly furry rodents and I wrote a blog in 2018 on Paris rats (click here to read the blog, Paris Therapy Pets). Fast forward now to several months ago when the newly elected mayor of New York City created a new position and appointed someone to deal with the city’s massive rat problem. (Mayor Adams has been fined several times because his house is infested so I figure he wanted a hot line to someone who could come right away and get rid of his invasive rodents.)
Well, what do I see the other day? No, not more rats but rather a CNN article entitled “Can humans and rats live together? Paris is trying to find out.” It seems to be a bona fide question the Paris politicians are trying to answer. Mayor Hidalgo has formed a committee to study “cohabitation” with the rats while the center-right party is calling for more aggressive action against the proliferation of rat populations. They argue that rats are harmful to the quality of life. The pro-rat organization, Paris Animaux Zoopolis (PAZ), disagrees as do senior members of the Paris government. Paris rats do not pose a public health risk and “we need scientific advice,” says the deputy mayor. I guess she never studied the history of medieval Europe.
So, what does “cohabitation” with the rats mean? According to PAZ, “. . . making sure (rats) don’t suffer and that we’re not disturbed.” I suppose that is what is meant by “having your cake and eating it too.” That is, until the rats eat the cake first. At that point, the old French saying, “Let them eat cake” becomes relevant and solves the problem.
Rats can often be seen on the streets of Paris despite extermination efforts. Photo by Christian Hartmann (date unknown). Reuters/CNN.
The Invasion and Mulberry Harbor
I think everyone is familiar with D-Day and the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944 (Operation Overlord, or simply “Overlord”). However, not everyone knows about the two artificial harbors (“Mulberry”) used to facilitate unloading supply ships with the materials necessary to sustain an advancing army. I’m also pretty sure most don’t know the story of Operation Fortitude which was a series of Allied deception plans intended to make Hitler and his senior staff think Normandy was a diversion and the real invasion would take place at Pais de Calais. (Click here to read the blog, The Double Cross System.) Read More Mulberry Harbor & The Delta Works
“Stew blends the dark history of buildings in Paris that are associated with the infamous deeds of the Gestapo with contrasting insights into the bravery of the French people, who, at great risk to themselves and their families, secretly resisted the German Occupation.”
Stanley Booker, MBE, RAF (Ret.), Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur
“Informative and entertaining, Stew Ross’ newest work evokes a difficult and frightening time in the history of the City of Light. The detailed descriptions of sites such as the Vél’ d’hiv’ or Gestapo headquarters reminds us of the choices people made during those years.”
Cynthia Bisson, PhD, Professor of History, Belmont University, French Resistant Expert
